Q&A

Dean McEvoy is one of Australia’s most recent Startup Success stories, with his first business Spreets which sold to Yahoo! – In this interview Dean talks about giving back to the startup scene, serendipity and what we need to do in order to build a strong community.

Born in 2012, Australian startup FitUsIn has gained widespread acclaim for revolutionising the fitness industry by putting the power back into the hands of gym-goers, who now have the ability to find, compare and book the best fitness deals via the company website or iPhone app.

Fred Schebesta, 32, is Co-Founder of Finder.com.au, Australia’s leading financial-product comparison website. In the last six years, since entering the comparison market – one of the most highly competitive internet categories in Australia – Schebesta developed growth strategies so successful that Finder now that attracts over 250,000 unique comparisons every month. Here’s what he had to say about his entrepreneurial journey and business growth.

If you can name it then James Duchenne has done it. From aeronautical engineering to a masters degree in law to a role in commercial waste management. He has a resume which is both diverse and interesting. Lately James has been working on a brand new startup called mplifyr- a one-of-kind rewards platform that allows businesses to build their own, customized rewards program. We talked to him about mplifyr and how its all going.

James Chung, the founder of Lash Creative is extremely direct. He doesn’t mince words and when he asks a question, you can see his brain ticking over with pluses and minuses, trying to discern the point. As he himself shrugs ‘I’m a bit of a skeptic’. But this is a good thing in a town where people will tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. We sat down and talked to him about being successful, keeping clients happy and voice recognition.

Zara Choy wants to change the world, just a little bit differently. Setting up Coalition of Mischief with her co-founder Kevin, they aim to help social causes with a side of creativity. How do they plan to do that? We talk to her about social causes, not-for-profits and nerdy apps.

Brian Lim has many hats, he’s the organiser of Tedx Ultimo, he lectures at UTS, he’s the volunteer IT guy at Fishburners and he has a startup on the side, so how does he manage it all? We talk to Brian about his many different projects.

David Wei has two successful startups under his belt and the blessings of both GroupOn and Optus, so from the outside in, it looks like the easy life for David! But of course, anyone who’s ever run their own business knows it’s never all smooth sailing and rose-smelling. We talk to David about some of the challenges in pulling together a team, the Sydney vs Melbourne debate and pitching for Innov8.

Sometimes we forget that the Sydney city centre is not the centre of the world. Co-working spaces and incubator hubs are popping up left, right and centre outside Sydney metro, making the commute for many tech workers much easier. WeCo, set in the Eastern Suburbs locale of Edgecliff, is due to launch sometime next week. We talk to Joel Hauer, the co-founder of WeCo and get the lowdown on the new space and how it came about.

First session has started in Canberra’s Polycademy and Roger Qiu is envisioning a graduate class of accomplished coders and designers in 11 weeks time. We catch up with the founder of Polycademy and find out where the idea came from and what it takes to run a budding development school in Canberra.

Andrew Campbell and Ned Moorfield from goCatch saw an industry that was ripe for disruption and decided that was a gap that needed to be filled. The media loved it, the taxi industry not so much, and almost everyone had an opinion on the state of paid transport in NSW. We talked to Ned Moorfield about goCatch, where it is now and how it’s managed to stay successful.